Plastic soul (gem)
by Umbra Nigra
Summary: They say 'all is fair in love and war'. But when one single soul is fighting two opposite wars of love, what is fair? Who is in control?
1. Prologue

I remember no pain, just the splatter of crimson as my own bullet penetrated the end of my sternum. For some reason, I shot myself. For some reason, my soul wouldn't want me to heal, so all I could do was lying down, waiting for death to wrap me up once the blood in my veins was all gone...

Yet I heard another voice, higher-pitched, sweeter than anything I could think about.

"Homura-chan!"

It was dyed with horror, and most of all, concern. For some reason, Madoka had once again gotten to like me enough for her to call me 'friend' and only that filled my frozen heart with warmth and pushed me to live, to finish what I had started.

But right now, as I ignored the taste of blood, I felt her delicate figure over me, tiny hands fighting to stop the bleeding, teardrops falling on me as well.

"W-why did you do that, Homura-chan...?"

I tried to reply, and mannaged to let only three words out. "It... wasn't... me..."

Any other person's eyes would fill with disbelief, but hers... my, how to describe the emotions those perfect diamonds were showing.

She somehow believed me.

"Y-you'll be okay, Homura-chan... Mami-san has called for a-an ambulance... p-please..."

Her voice broke just then.

"S-s-stay with m-me..." She croaked out.

I covered her shaky hands with my pale, free one. Blood was invading skin and clothes, yet none of us cared.

"I will... Madoka..."

But as soon as I breathed back in, a black fog flooded my senses, and no more memories of then will ever come.


	2. Interrupted routine

Akemi-san... why was I even worrying about her? I always wanted to be a reliable Senpai, but next to her, I looked like a novice. However, she was my... friend, along with Kaname-san, and seeing the poor pinkette crying over her bleeding friend was heartbreaking.

Swallowing down my jealousy, I called for the ambulance, then walked over to help the younger girl to stop the bleeding.

"Mami-san..." The fear I saw in those fuchsia, expressive eyes was undescribable, and it was enough proof that theese two shared an unspoken bond, much deeper than friendship. "Wh-wh-why isn't she h-healing...?"

It was too much to me and I could only look down. I hated to admit it, but... "I don't know, Kaname-san. Honestly yet sadly, it's the first time I see something like that. Akemi-san always seemed so cool and composed, then suddenly, out of the blue..." I sighed.

"It wasn't her..." The pinkette replied, frowning a little behind her unstopable tears. "Sh-she told me it wasn't her, a-and I saw it in her eyes... sh-she wasn't lying."

I mused over her words, then looked back down at the paler girl's face. ...true, even Akemi-san had looked surprised when she had shot herself, but then... what the hell was happening?

Madoka was still crying, hands on the wound, and I had to do something. "She'll be fine." It was the first thing that came to my head, and my determination only grew when she faced me, a faint hope blooming in her watery eyes. "She's been amazing until now, so I trust her."

The ambulance came and took Akemi-san, and before I could do anything, Kaname-san rushed in.

It left.

I was left alone again, like I had been the last few years.

Why was loneliness so painful?

I shook my head and went to hunt witches on my own: Mitakihara city still needed someone to protect it, and I still was the eldest Magical Girl on it.


	3. Blood, sweat and tears

They didn't let me in.

They were doing surgery on my friend and never let me in.

I was left alone to cry in the empty hallway, nobody would be up so late at night. I knew I should call my mother, but... how to explain to her?

Or how to explain to anyone that my friend had shot herself with a weapon she had drawn out of a magical shield?

I was glad Mami-san had taken the weapon away before they had come. When the ambulance had taken Homura-chan in they were both in their shool uniforms. I had barely heard through my crying what Mami-san had told them, something about a terrorist and us finding her like that.

I clung onto that excuse, but never brought myself to call my Mom. I was too weak, too devastated to bring myself to do anything but to wash the blood of my hands in the bathroom, go back to the waiting room and cry, in fear that the person I cherished and admired would die.

Something strange had attracted me to her since the very beginning, a dream I had had about her and I I can barely remember, but also a feeling I couldn't put into words.

And right then, that feeling was killing me. Or more like, the fear to lose the person for which I felt like that.

I was so very innocent.

I can't remember how much I sat there, just crying, until I fell asleep on the seats. All I know is that a doctor woke me up sometime later to tell me that the surgery had been successfuly done, that she was alive and stable, yet still asleep due to the anesthesia.

He also told me that she spoke in her sleep, always muttering a name.

In any other moment I would have asked, but right then all I could do was running into the hospital room.

I stood next to her, and my eyes flooded again upon seeing her connected to the IVs, a beeping machine reading her pulse, an oxygen mask on her face.

Her pale, beautiful, flawless face.

Sharp jawline, thin eyebrows, warm lips. That slight blush on her cheeks. Her calm, incredibly peaceful expression, that perfect, slightly pointy nose. The way her ebony fringe gently covered her forehead. She almost looked like a modern version of Snow White.

I shook my head at those thoughts and dried my eyes with my still bloodstained sleeve, dizzy due to the crying, the sleeping and the scent of medical stuffs. Then I gently caressed the soft cheek with the back of my hand, too small to my liking. In fact, the whole me is too short and tiny people always confuses me with a primary student.

"M...ado...ka..."

I gasped softly and inmediately retracted my hand as soon as she murmured my name in her dreams.

What?

How even?

How could I, a normal, clumsy, silly shortie appear in the dreams of a cool, beautiful, composed, badass girl like herself?

"Ma...doka..."

She seemed to try and reach out in her dreams, still closed eyes filling with tears, and I couldn't help myself: I glomped her as gently as I could.

I just didn't realise that my action had woken her up by accident.


	4. Blankets and tears

I woke up to a voice that usually is sweet and conforting... but at that moment all I could hear were sobs.

I was dizzy, my whole body numbed.

What was that familiar view and scent? And those beeping sounds? ...no way.

For a moment I got scared that it all had been a dream and I had just woken up from my heart transplant surgery, but those sobs, that pink hair, the scent of strawberry champoo... It was doubtlessly Madoka, so that meant I was still in my loop of April 2011.

But then... what the hell had just happened?

It took me a while to remember, but once I did, I couldn't help but to gasp, and the next I heard was a high-pitched squeak as Madoka instantly retracted herself with wide eyes.

"H-homura-chan!" She let out before hugging me again, tighter this time. "You're awake! You really are!"

Only after a great effort did I mannage to place my right hand on her head, still numb, still dizzy, yet somehow enjoying the flooffy touch of her pink hair.

"I was... so, so worried..." She cried against my neck, and somehow, my own eyes filled with tears.

It hadn't been me but it had been my body. Therefore, I had hurt Madoka, and I had almost broken my promise to protect her.

And yet again, why hadn't I regenerated already?

She sensed my uneaven breath and stared at me, then dried her tears with her sleeves to gently wipe mine away with her soft, gentle, small thumbs.

"It'll be okay, Homura-chan..." She sucked in a deep breath and sighed. "I-I believe you... I believe i-it wasn't you. S-someone as strong and admirable as you are, would n-never do something like that out of the blue."

But that only made my eyes flood even more.

Madoka was strong, not me.

She had been strong enough to stop crying for me.

How... endearing.

"I'm... s...orr...y..." Was al I could let out.

"I-It wasn't your fault, Homura-chan!" She shook her head and held my pale, skinny, limp hand. "Y-you fought hard and now you're back with me... and I'm happy! S-see?"

Her eyes were red and puffy, yet she closed them to gift me with the most beautiful smile I had ever seen.

I closed my fingers around hers and mannaged to speak one last time before a nurse came in:

"I... won't... leave you..."


	5. Home, bittersweet home

The next day happened way too fast.

My regenerating powers came back, but not fully, so the stupid wound was healing at a very high speed for a human, yet so very slowly to a magical girl.

Kaname Junko came to pick her daughter up, but Madoka refused to leave me, clinging to my hand, even when I had drifted off due to the anesthesia.

The hospital tried to call my family, only to find out I was living on my own.

The impulsive businesswoman, to Madoka's excitement, decided to bring me to their house without even asking me. "She's miraculously healing, right? This is the power of friendship." She said. "My daughter and her need to be together, and since she has no family I'll take care of that part."

Then I woke up at midday to the tiny owner of the highest pitched voice jumping next to the bed where I had been placed: Kaname Takkun.

"Maroka's friend! Heal fast! Wake up!"

I sat up in surprise, feeling no pain, not even when the stitches almost came out, and stared around with wide eyes. What the hell had just happened? The last I remembered was falling asleep in my hospital bed before Madoka's mother came in.

So...

Oh, no. Now way.

This just couldn't be.

Madoka rushed into the room. "Takkun! Don't botter Homura-chan! She's slee-" She stared at me with wide eyes, lips pressdd into a thin, wobbly line.

"Uh... wha...?" Was all I mannaged to say.

"Takkun! You weren't supposed to bother her!" She lectured with the cutest angry pout I had ever seen.

"Sowy..." He looked dosn and left.

Sighing, the pinkette hugged me. "I'm sorry, Homura-chan... a lot of things have happened, and I guess a toddler like him has yet to learn to understand them..."

Slowly, I wrapped my arms around her, still weak, still dizzy, but not as much as the night prior.

"But hey...! You're gonna live with us from now on! A-are you happy?"

She smiled at me with a blush, and I blinked once, twice, five times with a poker face as my mind tried to process it. Then I mentally cursed ny bloodstream when my own face reddened, even more than the shorter girl's.

This. Just. Couldn't. Be. Real.

Was it even okay?

Would I be able to protect Madoka or would it only endanger her more?

"Homura-chan... is everything okay?"

I saw concern in her eyes and quickly shook my head. "No, I... just need to get used to this and... propperly thank you."

Her expression inmediately turned into a sweet, joyful smile, and I almost felt like returning it, but my facial expression had frozen time lines ago.

"Well, if it isn't our sleeping beauty. I see you're finally awake, would that turn my daughter into a prince?"

We both blushed at Kaname Junko's words when she entered the room. I opened my mouth to reply, but Madoka was faster.

"M-mama, please!" She was red as Ketchup. "T-Takkun awoke her..."

"Does it mean he's the prince, then?" She teased with a smile.

Madoka pouted and hugged me despites her terrible shyness, and I could somehow sense she was jealous.

"Er... I-I'm not a sleeping beauty, Kaname-san..." I let out, my voice trying to stand cool, but failing because of my shame. "I'm just an injured girl, and I wouldn't like to be a burden."

"Don't say that!" They both let out at the same time, and I could see that, the two Kaname girls together were a force of nature. If I weren't so used to fight witches, I'd have been scared.

"First of all, Kaname-san is what you'd call my mother. Secondly, you are pretty: just look at the way my daughter drools all over you!"

Madoka nodded at all the words, then squeaked at the last statement.

"M-mama!" She hid her face in the crook of my neck, and I gasped at the tickles of her fringe against it, redder than ever.

Junko laughed.

"I'll leave you two alone now, Papa is making dinner. I'll tell you two when it's done."

And thus she did left us on our own in that room full of emotions.


End file.
